Congrats on the new ride. If you don't have all the gear to wear all the time, you might want to transfer the money to the rider extended warranty ;-)

If you are handy with wrenches, then my Honda experience has been their warranty is in their Quality. I've not gotten one on a Honda. One can do the regular maintenance with basic tools. IMHO. If you ride enough to get past the "infant mortality" range in the first year of the regular warranty, the bike should be fine. You are well on your way.

Let us know how it goes... I'm doing the eenie, meanie, minnie, moe between the Honda & Yamaha 250 dual sports. (so perhaps I should not have posted in the "owner's" thread ... yet)

New crf 250l owner here, as well as new Advrider member, and first time ever rider...ever. Now have 17 total lifetime miles under my belt. Took it out on the open road and was brave enough to hit 50 mph. I have to work on shifting, and w/o a tach wasnt sure what gear to be in. Anyway, have no idea as to how to comment on the bike because I have no basis of comparison. However, at my present weight of #240 lb I'm questioning whether this 250 will haul my butt up hills w/o slowing traffic. Coworkers convinced me to start small.

Question, I opted for the 5 year total Honda warranty, and I could cancel for full refund, it is quite pricy. Do members typically go with the extended Honda warranty or just the factory 1 year and "self insure"?

Thanks

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Congrats on the new bike. Your coworkers are wise. You will go from small to big, then back to small. I've never had anything over a 650. I'm not a big fan of extended warranties. Like another poster said. Get your money back and save it for a rainy day. With a service manual, you can do some stuff yourself, if you like that sort of thing. I'll have a go at some stuff, but if I feel it's over my head. I take it in, but NOT to the dealer. There are a couple of independent shops in my town that know what they're about. I hope it's different in your town. Good luck.

New crf 250l owner here, as well as new Advrider member, and first time ever rider...ever. Now have 17 total lifetime miles under my belt. Took it out on the open road and was brave enough to hit 50 mph. I have to work on shifting, and w/o a tach wasnt sure what gear to be in. Anyway, have no idea as to how to comment on the bike because I have no basis of comparison. However, at my present weight of #240 lb I'm questioning whether this 250 will haul my butt up hills w/o slowing traffic. Coworkers convinced me to start small.

Question, I opted for the 5 year total Honda warranty, and I could cancel for full refund, it is quite pricy. Do members typically go with the extended Honda warranty or just the factory 1 year and "self insure"?

Thanks

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If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the MSF rider safety course.

Instead of the extended warranty, I suggest you get good, protective riding gear, and wear it all the time. If you have good riding gear, bank the warranty money for future maintenance, tires, gasoline, et cetera.

I got a personal message reply from Jungleplant (Mike), the owner of ManRacks. He is working on a luggage rack for the CRF250L. Progress will go faster if someone in Southern California is willing to bring his bike over to Mike's shop.

I go overseas all the time for work. If anyone is good at researching and doing some legwork, id be happy to go over and bring back some exhaust cans and rear racks. I know guys in Europe and Asia have had the bike longer and they already have some parts available. Just a thought.

Also I talked to fmf today about another bike and asked again about our pipe for this bike. The engineer said mid November was a safe guess. Group buy?

New crf 250l owner here, as well as new Advrider member, and first time ever rider...ever. Now have 17 total lifetime miles under my belt. Took it out on the open road and was brave enough to hit 50 mph. I have to work on shifting, and w/o a tach wasnt sure what gear to be in. Anyway, have no idea as to how to comment on the bike because I have no basis of comparison. However, at my present weight of #240 lb I'm questioning whether this 250 will haul my butt up hills w/o slowing traffic. Coworkers convinced me to start small.

Question, I opted for the 5 year total Honda warranty, and I could cancel for full refund, it is quite pricy. Do members typically go with the extended Honda warranty or just the factory 1 year and "self insure"?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Wow! welcome to the wonderful world of motorcycling. I'm about 5-10lbs heavier than you and the bike hauls me along at 120km/hr no problem, maybe a downshift on long steep hills. No tach with a new rider can be a pain, but go by the seat of your pants, the higher the frequency of the buzzing the higher the RPM. Once you have the bike broke in, after 300mi/500km per manual, try bouncing it off the rev limiter, while sitting on it, this will give you a good idea on the feel for the RPM when you're on the bike.

This is the smallest bike and the first enduro I've owned, plus my first EFI bike, but I've been tinkering with old Japanese bikes for a while, mainly big inline fours though. If you are mechanically inclined and handy with a wrench then the extended warranty may be overkill, I bought it, just because I have no clue how EFI works and have never frigged with it, plus it includes all oil changes for five years. Like I said if your new to motorcycling and not very handy with a wrench then the warranty is a good idea. If the dealer is friendly then ask to "observe" the maintanence when you take it in for work, this will give you and idea of how it's put together and how to deal with it. I'd recommned getting an owners manual and service manual too for torque specs, tightening sequences, etc.

Wow! welcome to the wonderful world of motorcycling. I'm about 5-10lbs heavier than you and the bike hauls me along at 120km/hr no problem, maybe a downshift on long steep hills. No tach with a new rider can be a pain, but go by the seat of your pants, the higher the frequency of the buzzing the higher the RPM. Once you have the bike broke in, after 300mi/500km per manual, try bouncing it off the rev limiter, while sitting on it, this will give you a good idea on the feel for the RPM when you're on the bike.

This is the smallest bike and the first enduro I've owned, plus my first EFI bike, but I've been tinkering with old Japanese bikes for a while, mainly big inline fours though. If you are mechanically inclined and handy with a wrench then the extended warranty may be overkill, I bought it, just because I have no clue how EFI works and have never frigged with it, plus it includes all oil changes for five years. Like I said if your new to motorcycling and not very handy with a wrench then the warranty is a good idea. If the dealer is friendly then ask to "observe" the maintanence when you take it in for work, this will give you and idea of how it's put together and how to deal with it. I'd recommned getting an owners manual and service manual too for torque specs, tightening sequences, etc.

BTW I'm a new ADV memebr and new CRF250L owner as well, Hi everybody.

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Thank you for your reply. The owners manual recommends shifting to 6th at 37mph (60 km/h), I get up to 50mph (80 km/h) and feel like the bike is really working. I twist the throttle and it very slowly accelerates from there. I'm also concerned with winding out the motor too much. For me to hit 75 mph (120 km/h) the bike would be screaming. Is that the case? But w/o a tach I have no idea what it's doing. You mention "bouncing off the rev limiter", how do you define that? I probably do it all the time mistakenly if you mean to rev it up with the clutch in while shifting.... I need to get that under control. It feels like I'm working this bike very hard just to keep up with traffic. Not what I was expecting. But then again I have no point of comparison what so ever. So it could be me and this is how it is. Maybe more of a street tire would help. I'm dropping the extended warranty today because I may actually sell this bike in the coming months once I get my skill level up.

Thank you for your reply. The owners manual recommends shifting to 6th at 37mph (60 km/h), I get up to 50mph (80 km/h) and feel like the bike is really working. I twist the throttle and it very slowly accelerates from there. I'm also concerned with winding out the motor too much. For me to hit 75 mph (120 km/h) the bike would be screaming. Is that the case? But w/o a tach I have no idea what it's doing. You mention "bouncing off the rev limiter", how do you define that? I probably do it all the time mistakenly if you mean to rev it up with the clutch in while shifting.... I need to get that under control. It feels like I'm working this bike very hard just to keep up with traffic. Not what I was expecting. But then again I have no point of comparison what so ever. So it could be me and this is how it is. Maybe more of a street tire would help. I'm dropping the extended warranty today because I may actually sell this bike in the coming months once I get my skill level up.

Thanks

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Well until you have it full broken in i wouldn't try bouncing it off the rev limiter. Engines have an inbuilt limiter that prevents them from reving beyond their safe RPM limit, what it will feel like is the bike dying, then coming back and dying again etc for as long as you keep the throttle pinned. What it is doing is hitting max RPM, then automatically dropping down for a preset amount of time, then going back to max RPM. It's the engines way of telling you to back off. Shifting to 6th at 37 mph is pretty conservative. I've maxed mine out once on the highway, that was in a full racing tuck, down hill and I hit 140km/h, I had the throttle pinned to the stops and never hit the rev limiter, I don't think I could on this bike, I think my weight and the wind ressitance I casue because of my size means that the bike is always working and won't hit the rev limiter. ONce you are well beyind the prescribed break in period, and after the first oil and filter change do a little experiment. Sit on the bike with it off the sidestand, in neutral and progressively increase throttle input, it can be scary but I;ve done it one 30 year old inline fours of questionable upkeep, this allows you to gauge the RPM limits with the seat of the pants meter. I certainly don;t recommmedn it on a brand new engine as the first 500-1000km is still the bedding in time fro all the moving bits, excessive RPm in this period can either cause them to not bed in properly or destroy themselves. After the break in period though it would take pretty poor vehicle operation to destroy a modern engine. Like Isaid they are made with automatic safeguards that will prevent you from blowing them up.

I would imagine that an engine like this one, originally designed for the CBR250R, would have a pretty high RPM limit, not as high as an inline four mind you, but higher than you would think, they were originally designed for a diminutive race rep bike. I haebn't done any diggin yet but I imagine there is info on CBR250R owners boards as to RPM limits and when the rev limiter will kick in. They are still the same engine with the same dimensions and specs, changes to exhaust and intake have changed the power delivery and I imagien the rev limiter has been lowered, but it's the same engine and will have the same physical limits as the CBR engine.

In the beginning of this video, about the 30 sec mark, you can hear it hit the rev limiter then the wind noise gets to be too loud. You're being conservative on the RPM's which you should be until it's broken in. The motor isn't straining, it was designed to run at high RPM's. It can be disconcerting to a new rider but it's normal. It slowly accelerates in 6th @50mph because you're not on the powerband. When I'm on the highway I don't shift to 6th until about 60mph.

In the beginning of this video, about the 30 sec mark, you can hear it hit the rev limiter then the wind noise gets to be too loud. You're being conservative on the RPM's which you should be until it's broken in. The motor isn't straining, it was designed to run at high RPM's. It can be disconcerting to a new rider but it's normal. It slowly accelerates in 6th @50mph because you're not on the powerband. When I'm on the highway I don't shift to 6th until about 60mph.

Awesome video, very helpful. When I bought the bike the dealer sold me on the extended warranty by telling me I could over rev the engine, hence I was concerned about over reving the engine. But the description you guys have given me is much more useful.

Awesome video, very helpful. When I bought the bike the dealer sold me on the extended warranty by telling me I could over rev the engine, hence I was concerned about over reving the engine. But the description you guys have given me is much more useful.

Thanks

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If you over rev'd the engine, and the dealer could prove it, they most likely wouldn't pay on the warranty anyway. Most dealers will do what ever it takes, not to honor a warranty claim.

Yes we will be looking at a skid plate design for the 250L. We hope to be
designing it within the next month or so. We will also be designing a radiator
guard while the bike is here for R&D. Check back with us in a month or so to
see how we made out.

Hi everyone - I'm looking for a new DS bike to use in the US, and was wondering if anyone has ridden both the Yamaha WR250R and this new CRF250L and can make any useful comparisons - certainly the price is very competitive in the US, and I do like my Hondas!

Looking forward to some insight, which knowing me I will comprehensively ignore - I like pretty, shiny things!

Hi everyone - I'm looking for a new DS bike to use in the US, and was wondering if anyone has ridden both the Yamaha WR250R and this new CRF250L and can make any useful comparisons - certainly the price is very competitive in the US, and I do like my Hondas!

Looking forward to some insight, which knowing me I will comprehensively ignore - I like pretty, shiny things!